September 8, Saturday, 3:00 pm, Larchmont Library, Larchmont, NY

A poster for a talk and Q & A discussion session about her book MAKING TIME FOR MAKING MUSIC at Brookline Music School in Brookline, MA.

Author Amy Nathan has been holding talks and leading discussions at music schools or at music Meetup groups on the challenges — and the many rewards — of making time for making music for adults who are already busy with non-music careers and family responsibilities. As one of the people featured in her book MAKING TIME FOR MAKING MUSIC says: "For the two hours a week when I’m at rehearsal for community band, I get a break from the challenges of being an adult— work, children, bills, housing. For that two hours, the stress melts away and I feel refreshed.” Or as another notes: "Returning to music broke me out of my work/ home routine and reminded me that despite my highly analytical work life, I still have a creative side.”

To arrange a visit: AmyNbooks@gmail.com

A parent-to-parent talk about THE MUSIC PARENTS' SURVIVAL GUIDE at the DC Youth Orchestra featuring orchestra alumna Toyin Spellman-Diaz (R) of the Imani Winds, and Kenneth Whitley, the orchestra's assistant artistic director.

Author Amy Nathan (C) has been holding parent-to-parent discussions at many schools, including Peabody Preparatory, Juilliard & Manhattan School of Music Pre-College, Temple Music Prep, Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra.

Amy Nathan (R) with Sandra Shapiro, Dean of Cleveland Institute of Music's Preparatory Division, at a parent-to-parent "WALKING THE MUSIC PARENTING TIGHTROPE" workshop with parents of members of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. To arrange a parent-to-parent workshop at your music school or program, contact the author at: AmyNbooks@gmail.com

To arrange a visit:

AmyNBooks@​gmail.com

* * * * * * * * * *
Amy Nathan is available for presentations and author visits on women's history, Civil Rights, and music & dance education.
She is also available for book signings at bookstores or book festivals.

To arrange a visit: AmyNBooks@​gmail.com

The following presentations on WOMEN’S HISTORY, MUSIC EDUCATION and CIVIL RIGHTS have been well received by a range of audiences: elementary school, middle school, high school, and adult. She was a teacher for many years (and also a professional actress for a time) and is comfortable relating to audiences of all kinds.

Presentations can be tailored to the specific needs of each group. Most talks involve Power Point, although they could be done without Power Point.

For fees and availability:
AmyNbooks@​gmail.com

SEE BELOW for descriptions of these presentations:

** PRESENTATION ON CIVIL RIGHTS **
- ROUND AND ROUND TOGETHER

** PRESENTATION ON CIVIL RIGHTS **
- INTERVIEWING LOCAL HEROES

** PRESENTATION ON MUSIC EDUCATION **
- BEATING THOSE PRACTICE-TIME BLUES
- WALKING THE MUSIC PARENTING TIGHTROPE
- MAKING TIME FOR MAKNG MUSIC IN YOUR BUSY LIFE

** PRESENTATIONS ON WOMEN'S HISTORY **
- THE STORY OF THE WASP PILOTS OF WWII
- WOMEN TO COUNT ON
- SHE WOULD NOT BE MOVED
- WOMEN OF COURAGE

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DESCRIPTIONS OF PRESENTATIONS:

** PRESENTATION ON CIVIL RIGHTS **
-- ROUND AND ROUND TOGETHER:
On August 28, 1963, as hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Washington for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom at which Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., would deliver his “I Have a Dream Speech,” a smaller yet significant Civil Rights victory was taking place about forty miles away on a beautiful, wooden merry-go-round at a formerly segregated Maryland amusement park. Less than two decades later, that same merry-go-round took up residence on Washington’s National Mall, where it still sits today, known now as the Smithsonian’s Carousel on the Mall, located not far from where Dr. King gave his historic 1963 speech.
The surprising Civil Rights background of this popular Washington tourist attraction will be discussed in a slide talk by Amy Nathan, author of ROUND AND ROUND TOGETHER, the recent book that first uncovered the connection between the Smithsonian’s Carousel on the Mall and the Civil Rights Movement’s monumental August 1963 March on Washington. Using archival newspaper photos and historic TV footage, Nathan will describe the nearly decade-long protest effort that led to the end of segregation at Gwynn Oak Amusement Park, the Baltimore County amusement park where the Smithsonian’s carousel used to be located. Gwynn Oak dropped segregation on the same day as that March on Washington: August 28, 1963. On that day, the first African American child to go on a ride at the park—eleven-month-old Sharon Langley—took a spin on its merry-go-round.
The presentation will also discuss how that merry-go-round ended up at the Smithsonian and became the Carousel on the Mall. In addition, the talk will focus on changes made to the Carousel on the Mall after the book’s publication, when the ride’s current operators first became aware of their carousel’s Civil Rights history: An historical marker, with text written by Nathan, will be placed in front of the carousel; the horse that Sharon Langley rode in August 1963 has been designated the ride’s “Civil Rights horse.”
For student groups, the presentation will also give students suggestions for how they could do oral-history-type interviews and historical research of their own, using ROUND AND ROUND TOGETHER as the jumping off point for encouraging students to interview local people in their own communities who took part in or lived through key historic events.

** PRESENTATION ON CIVIL RIGHTS **
- INTERVIEWING LOCAL HEROES:
This presentation uses the book TAKE A SEAT--MAKE A STAND as the jumping off point for encouraging students to interview local people in their own communities who took part in or lived through key historic events. The choice of events will be worked out in consultation with the teachers who invite the author to give this presentation. For example, when this program was done at a school in New Orleans, the interviewees were local activists who had taken part in civil rights protests. During the morning, the author worked with the New Orleans students to get them ready to do interviews, using as an example audio samples from interviews she had done with Sarah Keys Evans in order to write TAKE A SEAT--MAKE A STAND. The author shared with the students her "Secrets" of doing a good interview, and gave the students a chance to practice. In the afternoon, when the guests arrived, the students working in small groups interviewed the visitors, taping the interviews on tape recorders that the author provided. As a follow-up, the students would later write up a report on what they had learned from the interviews. Good for grades 5 to 9. (A link to a news article about this school visit appears at the top of this page.)

NOTE: This program on interviewing could also be done using any of the author's other books as the jumping off point. All of her books on music, dance and women's history were based on interviews. So if a school prefers to have the focus be women's history or music, the author could tailor the program so that the sample interviews to be considered would be interviews done for her books on those topics.

** PRESENTATION ON MUSIC EDUCATION **
-- BEATING THOSE PRACTICE-TIME BLUES:
When today’s prize-winning musicians were kids, did they always like to practice? No way! They grumbled and griped about practicing just like kids today. Some pros weren’t very regular practicers at first either — and did a certain amount of instrument switching before they found the right match for them. But there came a time with each of them when something clicked between them, their instrument and the music they loved — and practicing became much less of a chore. It still had its boring parts, but they found ways to make practicing less of a drag. This presentation encourages audience members (kids or adults) to air their gripes about practicing (or performing). Then audience members can dip their hands into grab-bags of “tips” to learn of practical, down-to-earth strategies from some of today’s top performers (the musicians featured in the author’s music books) that can help kids deal with the gripes they have. When possible the author likes to have student groups perform at these presentations and encourages these polished young performers to share their practice tips, too.

-- WALKING THE MUSIC PARENTING TIGHTROPE
A Q & A "parent-to-parent" discussion with fellow music parents at music schools of music programs, at which author Amy Nathan will share some of the suggestions and insights offered in there book, THE MUSIC PARENTS' SURVIVAL GUIDE, and will also encourage other parents to share their own concerns as well as strategies that have worked for them in handling the many challenges music parents meet.

-- MAKING TIME FOR MAKNG MUSIC IN YOUR BUSY LIFE
A brief presentation and discussion at music schools, music programs, libraries, or community groups on the challenges — and the many rewards — of trying to fit music-making into a life already filled with work and family responsibilities, with strategies and advice presented from the more than 200 non-pro musicians featured in the book MAKING TIME FOR MAKING MUSIC, as well as advice from music educators, health-care professionals, and music researchers who are also featured in the book. A follow-up Q & A discussion will focus on issues of concern to those in the audience for how they can make time for music making.

** PRESENTATIONS ON WOMEN'S HISTORY **
-- THE STORY OF THE WASP PILOTS OF WWII:
This presentation tells of the WASPs, gutsy women pilots who in the 1940s did something women weren’t expected to do back then: They flew fighter planes, bombers, and every other kind of plane the Army had, making important contributions to the war effort during World War II. This presentation highlights their courageous spirit, their determination to follow their dreams no matter what, the exuberant fun they had flying those amazing planes — and also the crushing disappointment they felt when the WASP program was shut down early through no fault of these excellent female pilots, highlighting how different things were for women not so very long ago. Women would not be allowed to fly again for the U.S. military or the airlines for nearly 30 years.

-- WOMEN TO COUNT ON:
This presentation gives an overview of women who have served (often in the face of strong opposition) with the military throughout U.S. history, from the Revolutionary War right up through the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, women who — with their “can do” spirit — have proved that, as Col. Mary Hallaren said during World War II: “You don’t have to be six foot and male to have a brain and know how to use it.” The presentation includes profiles of several women from each era.

-- SHE WOULD NOT BE MOVED:
This presentation tells the story of Sarah Keys Evans, an unsung hero of the Civil Rights Movement who did what Rosa Parks did — three years BEFORE Ms. Parks. There were quite a few early Civil Rights foot soldiers like Mrs. Evans, people who had the courage to stand up to Jim Crow years before the Martin Luther King, Jr., era and who helped prepare the way for the great victories that would come in the 1960s. Mrs. Evans achieved a victory of her own in 1955 when she protested her arrest three years earlier for not moving to the back of a bus. Her victory was a ruling by the ICC that effectively outlawed race-based seating in inter-state bus and train travel, a ruling that was generally obeyed in most parts of the country. Her ICC ruling was announced with great fanfare in newspapers around the nation just one week before Rosa Parks took her historic stand on a local bus in Montgomery, Alabama. The presentation will also briefly tell of others of these early unsung heroes.

-- WOMEN OF COURAGE:
This presentation will tell the stories of several women who faced difficult challenges in their lives and found ways to overcome so they could be builders of dreams and opportunities for those to follow. These women are not famous, but that is a key point of this presentation: That history isn’t made only by a few famous people, that in extraordinary times many “ordinary” folks step up and achieve remarkable things. Some of the women featured in this presentation include: Susie King Taylor (a teenaged former slave who served as a nurse and a tutor to African American troops during the Civil War); Dr. Mary Walker (a pants-wearing Civil War doctor and prisoner of war — and the only female recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor); Aileen Cole Stewart (an African-American nurse who against great odds finally managed to become an Army nurse in the aftermath of World War I); Gene Shaffer Fitzpatrick (one of the WASP pilots of World War II whose mother was against her becoming a pilot because it wasn’t “ladylike”); Sarah Keys Evans (unsung hero of the Civil Rights movement).

Presentations:
* Making Time for Making Music - Brookline Music School, Brookline, MA
* Making Time for Making Music - ACMA, DiMenna Center, NYC
* Parent-to-Parent Music Workshop, Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra
* Keynote Speaker at Cleveland Institute of Music Preparatory Division's graduation ceremony.
* Talking about the WASP pilots of WWII and the book YANKEE DOODLE GALS— with three WASPs in attendance! — at the Museum of Flight, Seattle, WA and also at the Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum
-- Q & A, "Walking the Music Parenting Tightrope" at Juilliard Pre-College, Peabody Preparatory, Temple Music Preparatory, Maryland Talent Education Center, DC Youth Orchestra, Hoff-Barthelson Music School
-- Teacher workshops on ROUND AND ROUND TOGETHER at Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore
-- Poster presentation, National Council for Social Studies annual conference, Boston
-- Presentations on ROUND AND ROUND TOGETHER and book signing
http:/​/​prattlibrary.mobi/​Podcasts.aspx?pod=73365
-- National Park Service, Washington, DC
-- Staff Development Day- Baltimore Public Schools
-- Multicultural Book Club - Hunting Ridge Presbyterian Church, Baltimore
-- Woodlawn Business Association Meeting - Woodlawn, MD
--AP Summer Academy, Baltimore, MD
Presentation and book signing on ROUND AND ROUND TOGETHER
--Middle States Conference on Social Studies
Book signing at the annual convention
-- Voracious Reader Bookstore, Larchmont, NY

Other Presentations
-- Manhattan School of Music, Pre-College Parents Association -- accompanying a presentation to the Parents Association focusing on some of the terrific tips from professional musicians who are feature in THE YOUNG MUSICIAN'S SURVIVAL GUIDE
-- National Air and Space Museum book-signing for YANKEE DOODLE GALS at which three of the WASP pilots of WWII participated -- and received warm congratulations (from all who stopped by) on the WASP at long last earning the Congressional Gold Medal
-- Women's Memorial for YANKEE DOODLE GALS and COUNT ON US in conjunction with Fly Girls, a new exhibit on the WASP pilots of WWII at the Memorial, located at the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery
-- New Rochelle (NY) Public Library's National Library Week Celebration
-- Book Festival at New Rochelle High School
-- New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts, Avery Fisher Hall, New York City
-- Hoff Barthelson Music School, Scarsdale, NY
-- Thurnauer School of Music, Tenafly, NJ
-- Westchester Conservatory of Music's Spring Fair - White Plains, NY
-- Suzuki Summer Workshop, Manhattanville College
-- Barnes and Noble, at Lincoln Center in NYC
-- Borders, White Plains, NY

PRESENTATIONS AND SCHOOL VISITS:
-- Presentations on ROUND AND ROUND TOGETHER
-- for Staff Development Day - Baltimore Public Schools
-- for DC teachers at workshop sponsored by National Park Service
-- at Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture
-- at Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Washington, DC, as part of the Conference on DC Historical Studies
-- at Enoch Pratt Central Library (two programs, one for adults and one for students)
http:/​/​prattlibrary.mobi/​Podcasts.aspx?pod=73365
-- at the AP Summer Academy in Baltimore
--at Voracious Reader bookstore, Westchester County, NY
--at the National Labor Relations Board seminar series, Baltimore, MD

-- Presentation on Women of World War II at the Maryland Women's Heritage Center

-- Presentation on Women of World War II at Hommocks Middle School, Westchester County, NY

-- Presentation on TAKE A SEAT--MAKE A STAND at Martin Luther King Jr. School, New Orleans, LA
http:/​/​www.nola.com/​books/​index.ssf/​2011/​03/​6th_graders_hear_about_civil_r.html
-- Womens History Month Presentation, Hamilton High School West, Hamilton, NJ

-- Keynote address for Women's History Month celebration at Western High School, Baltimore, MD